Wood Creek Lake
Southern Half
Friday, August 20, 2010
It goes without saying:
beautiful settings like this can provide a great place to escape from your
problems - but - if these problems find you anyway, it can be doubly
devastating. You’ve come all this way to gain some distance from said
difficulties only to be frustrated all over again despite the effort.
Don’t lose heart.
At the time I came out here my generally bad fortune
had left me in an impossibly bad position. If I thought about things too much it
would bring me to despair. What I needed today was to escape my ill fortune long
enough to figure out a way to cope with it.
Well, I drove out here, paid
the $3 to put-in, got all my gear together, and got on the water. Then, when I
took out my camera to take a picture – I found that the memory was used up!
I’ve mentioned before that I want to document these trips for others who might
be interested, so without pictures I feel like the trip has been useless. It
might be pleasant and help de-stress me, but that’s not good enough. I feel a
need to document it in case that documentation might be of service to others
too. So, with everything else going on, when I found out that my camera was out
of memory I was crushed! ALL my problems came back to me at double their
original weight.
I’ll tell you something… I couldn’t ever do it - I
feel it’s the ultimate sin of arrogance - but I can definitely understand under
what conditions someone might consider suicide, and I can certainly understand
why someone would want to simply give up in general, so at this point I’d about
had it. “God help me!” I uttered aloud (though embarrassed to discover that I
was probably overheard). I didn’t use the Lords’ name in vain. This
was a legitimate plea for help – and it worked!
The Wood Creek Lake Marina whose put-in I used today
had maybe about 50 boats docked there, and the location seemed to mark the exact
mid-point of this lake. Today I’d paddle the southern section which forms a
near-perfect “C”, this ramp coming in at about 11 o’clock point. First I had to
decide in which direction I wanted to begin though... Well, a group of people
across the river were obviously having an absolute blast! You could hear them
all over the lake, so I began by heading toward the “C’s bottom section first
(or right from the bottom of the ramp) in the direction the source of this lake
- Wood Creek itself.
There’s a little cove almost immediately on the right
after you’ve passed the line of boats docked at the marina, but it contained a
few individual docks and I didn’t explore all the way in. There are a lot of
homes with boats out here, you see, so I avoid some of the coves out of respect
for the privacy of the owners and any others who might be enjoying themselves in
them.
At the first cove of the paddle-able variety, however,
an answer to my camera problem came to me. I thought: “I’ve got my software set
up to delete pictures from my camera after importing them into my computer.
Well, that’s clearly it’s not working. However, there's surely a way to
delete them directly from the camera to give me room to take new ones?"
Well sure enough, there was, and I was relieved of this particular problem (too
bad all this didn’t occur to me on my Little Sandy River/Grayson Lake trip!
At any rate, I found all this to be very fortunate
indeed because I thought this cove was a real beauty with all the algae visible
underwater and all the shells to observe atop the graveyard tree trunk stubs. I
got back about 400 yards (a seemingly private boat ramp entered at the end).
X
Back on the main lake, it
looked like there was another ramp on the left side, and I’d also generally
noted by this point that this particular body of water seems a combination of
Herrington Lake (house-lined and narrow) and a cleaner version of Cave Run Lake
(with tree-lined shores that occasionally come all the way down to the water on
very gentle slopes).
Rounding the outside of the following curve I
encountered a group of about 15-20 ducks. All but the one below came out
blurred! Nevertheless, I find it interesting that while these birds fly in
a “V” formation they generally swim in a row. I know that by flying in a
“V” pattern the lead duck takes the brunt of the wind, leaving it easier for the
other ducks flying behind. Then, at some point they’ll swap leads to give each
other a break.
X
Anyway, after another
relatively sharp curve I met with the largest cove today – about 600 yards. It
was on the right and had a low, reedy end that the ducks and a heron really
seemed to like. (For that matter, I think I saw more ducks out here today than
I’ve seen anywhere - either it’s that time of year, or this lake attracts them.)
Also of note when I paddled out of this cove was that there’s another one across
the way. Quite small, it appeared to be the sole property of one landowner and
it even had its own little dock and ramp.
I’ll also note here that by the time I’d paddled into
the next 400 yard cove on the right, I’d already noticed a different kind of
dragonfly than I’d seen before. This sort was black and white with wing patterns
that reminded me a little bit of the checkered flag of an auto race, although I
couldn’t get a good enough picture to show it. These seemed a bit more
aggressive in their flying than the others I’d encountered too. They buzzed
around more like flies do, and a couple times I’d hear a fluttering right in my
ear on the other side of the hand towel I had draped over my head!
It wasn’t too much longer that I reached the end of
the lake where the Wood Creek itself empties in. There’s a ramp back here too
off Lake Road, and it appears that this one could be open to the public,
although I’d be very mindful of the homeowner here since I’m not totally sure.
Be prepared for a ramp fee in any case.
I’ll say it now - at the mouth of Wood Creek could be
the most beautiful scene I’ve witnessed in all of Kentucky. None of my words can
do it justice, I’ll simply put up the picture (although I’d point out that one
of the tiers on the left is almost totally comprised of cat-tails)… First a
solution to my camera problem had come to me - now this.
X
Despite wanting to get as far back as I could into Wood Creek, I wouldn’t disturb the above scene, so I paddled around to the other side. It was interesting trying to negotiate far enough to get a proper view of the stream in its natural state and I had to really pick my way back through low water, clogs, and deadfalls. Once having done so, however, I thought that the views back here were also pretty amazing…
X
Anyway, once I’d seen and gaped
over all this for quite a while it was back to the marina for the top part of
the “C”. Once there, I curved around to the right and was on my way, and
wouldn’t ya know - those people were still whooping it up! They were
really having a great time! As for me, I paddled along the right shoreline
on a curve which ended in an “elbow” on the right before the river began to make
a slight curve left. Guess what? There was another ramp on the left
side and this one looked like it could have been public too. There was an
overhead light and I saw signs of many fishing spots.
It was also here on this elbow that I spent quite a
bit of time later. Seeing a lot more algae just under the surface, I decided to
try and get some pictures as the fish swam around and through it, but I only
succeeded in getting another blurred one of a very large fish that swam right
under my boat! Alas! The one that got away…
The last section I’d paddle was basically a long slow
right curve, and around the middle of this was what seemed to me an absolutely
classic looking pier/dock on the right. I hope the people don’t mind me putting
this picture up... There’s also a lush little cove right here along with a great
log cabin home/complex (I’m kinda partial to log cabins!).
X
Upon reaching this end of the
lake I found it to be really lush too, but I didn’t get back very far - the
water got really low around the grounds of some homes. So, having a fair
amount of time on my hands at this point (it had taken me about 8 hours to
paddle the northern section and today it only took me about 5 ½) I decided to
float around for a while.
Doing so, I got a visitor! Say hello to my
little friend! I believe this is possibly a Sulphur Butterfly? Not
sure, but it landed on my arm and stayed there long enough for me to get quite a
few decent pictures. I couldn’t let it stay there, however. I might
take it too far away from home, so I picked it up – as gently as I could by the
wings - and it fluttered away. Interestingly, on my fingers where I’d picked it
up was a yellow powder/residue – sulphur or possibly pollen? I wondered…
X
…but alas, those thoughts
strayed, and it was at about this point that my problems started hitting me
again. Once again I felt that sense of despair… Well another critter landed on
me now, this time a dragonfly, and it wasn’t facing away from me as usual. This
one was looking directly at me with those green googley eyes and a smile on its’
– countenance? Instinctively I reached for my camera, but the creature was
gone. The scene looked much like the one on my "Paddling Ideas" page but
this time there was a smile – no lie! My problems faded.
Last to paddle was the cove on the northern side of
the lake across from the ramp - where all the people were. This one turned
out to be navigable about 500 yards and it was a left curve all the way.
In fact, the cove went so far back that had I not known better I’d have thought
it formed an island.
Back at the ramp it was quite crowded. You’ve really
got to be careful as a paddler with all the boats coming in and out at these!
There was a smaller boat all the way to the side of where I wanted to go, so I
very carefully crossed the lake and then made my way around to the other side,
all the while avoiding the other power boats putting in.
On the way out I checked out Woodcreek Lodge, and I
can tell you it looks like a great place worth staying in – another classic!
I wish all who read this the best of fortune!
James
Directions:
The Daniel Boone Parkway (Route 80) intersects I75
just north of London, Kentucky. Go west on it for almost 5 miles and then start
looking for a green sign for the boat ramp. This will come up just past the 5
mile mark at a Marathon gas station, but it’s so small that I’d like you to
start looking for it earlier so you won’t accidentally pass it up as I almost
did. It the kind of sign that you see with mileages to different cities on it on
the freeway, but it’s only got one destination, so it’s thinner (you know what I
mean). This sign will be on your right and you’ll follow it to take a right on
Hawk Creek Road.
Follow Hawk Creek for one mile, and then take a right
onto Moriah Road (there’s a convenience store here). I saw a small blue “Boat
Ramp” sign on my left before I ever saw the street name and this directed me to
make the right turn. Follow Moriah for about a mile and a half to the boat ramp
at the end (don’t take the left onto Half Moon or the right on Boulder). You can
park almost anywhere you can find a spot, but they charge a $3 fee.